What boardgames have you played recently?

RobZagnut

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Anyone try Trajan? Starting to read the rules. Not sure if my group will like it though.


Played three quick games of Dominant Species the Card Game tonight after receiving it for Christmas. Although not as rich a gaming experience as a full blown Dominant Species slug fest, the quickness of the game made up for the simpler nature of the game. I think having the entire Dominant Species "back story" helped to make for a good gaming experience.

Bill

Thanks for the reminder. I’ve had Dominant Species the Card Game for a while, but haven’t played it. Pulled it off the shelf last night and read the rules as I have a Friday night and all day Saturday euro session planned. Hopefully, the card game will lead to my group wanting to play the board game (we’ve never played it). Do you like the board game? Would casual players like it? My group likes Settlers, Goa, Stone Age and Puerto Rico.



Is this one of those D & D boardgames series? Those look cool, with lots of good components. Kind of pricey though if they don't get off the shelf much. (Already got too many of those)

No, I have the Vampire D&D boardgame (Castle Ravenloft) and they’re not that good. Descent is much better as you have an Overlord player that screws with the Heroes as only a human can do. The D&D boardgames are everyone is a Hero and turn over a tile and such & such monster is on it, defeat it and turn over the next tile. Gets old quickly.

Lords of Waterdeep is a worker placement game that reminds me of Caylus-lite. You need to recruit adventurers to complete quests, which give you points. You want to build Buildings that other players will use to get better combos of Adventurers, while giving you a bonus at the same time for them using your building. But, you also want to draw Intrigue cards, so you can screw with your opponents or get cool stuff, or you might want to place a Worker to grab a quest that get you Lord bonus points. Multiple strategies and multiple paths to get there is what makes this one fun.
 

Bob Holmstrom

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Is this one of those D & D boardgames series? Those look cool, with lots of good components. Kind of pricey though if they don't get off the shelf much. (Already got too many of those)
I agree with what Rob says above. I've played the second game in the series and it was dull and unispiring. Flip over a tile, place a monster, roll a d20 to see if it does any damage to you, then you roll a d20 to see if you kill it, repeat until the game ends. If you are looking for a dungeon crawler, "Descent" is much better although not full co-op.
 

M Faulkner

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I have played Trouble, Operation, Connect Four and Candy Land. I have ruthlessly beat my 5 year old (try as I might to lose the game). But then again, she has beat me in a couple of games also. She is getting better.
 

RobZagnut

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I have played Trouble, Operation, Connect Four and Candy Land. I have ruthlessly beat my 5 year old (try as I might to lose the game). But then again, she has beat me in a couple of games also. She is getting better.

For a 5 year old or older try some euro type games like Rat-a-tat Cat, The Secret Door, Enchanted Forest and Gulo Gulo. They are quite good. Trust me, it will save you from having to play some of those old American games over and over. I have them in storage if you can’t find them.
 

Bill Cirillo

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Rob,

So, last January a group of six of us decided to "extend" our Winter offensive experience by staying through Sunday and gaming on Monday. Theintent was to play lighter, non-ASL type games. Given that we had six, we decided late on Sunday night to pull out Dominant Species the board game.

By this point we had been asked to leave the official WO gaming area since we weren't paying for the ball room space, so we moved a table out into a pretty poorly lit hallway area which made for some great "dawn of time" ambiance.

After plowing through the rules (two of the players had played the game one time before) and playing the first two turns all I could think was "holy ****, this is a game that isn't made for everyone. In fact, if you wanted to break up a marriage, give this game as a wedding present.*" And here's what I mean. Although there are no guns, tanks, swords, or bullets in the game, DS is the single most bloody gaming experience ever (IMo). Kill or be killed, try and get along and be killed, try and lay low and be killed, for a parasitic relationship with another animal and be killed, form a symbiotic relationship with another animal and get killed...

...and in the end, simply an awesome gaming experience! I'm headed out to play it again in a couple hours.

So, if you like games that:

a) are rich in possibilities (there are 12 basic actions that a player can choose from each turn),

b) but have limited resources (most basic functions can only be played by 2-4 of the six players),

c) that has a high replayability (there are 25 event cards that heavily influence the game, but the ordering of the cards is random and only 5 are ever known at any one time.

Then DS is for you.

Potential downsides:

Analysis paralysis - a lot of decision making crammed into a small space

Game length - even with speedy play the game will take 4-5 hours based on our gaming experiences

Even after half a dozen playings, I'm still not sure what a winning strategy is.

Hope this helps.

Bill


*actual thought
...Thanks for the reminder. I’ve had Dominant Species the Card Game for a while, but haven’t played it. Pulled it off the shelf last night and read the rules as I have a Friday night and all day Saturday euro session planned. Hopefully, the card game will lead to my group wanting to play the board game (we’ve never played it). Do you like the board game? Would casual players like it? My group likes Settlers, Goa, Stone Age and Puerto Rico....
 

conscriptvlad

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Working on consuming Twilight Struggle...pretty decent Cold War game.
Twilight Strugge is a light and fun game you can play even with non-gamers. I recently played this with my wife lasting 5 hours ending in a draw at the end of the game :nuts:! Afterwards, we had fun talking about the historical events behind the cards too. :D
 

rdw5150

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Finished up a game of MAge Knight and then played a Few Acres of Snow with buddy Doug.

Both lots of fun, though I probably liked Mage Knight better.

Peace

Roger
 

Steven Pleva

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Roger,
Make sure you are playing with the latest AFAoS rules modifications. Also, there are some random SSRs you can add to give the game more replayability. Check out BGG for both. I like Mage Knight as well, but only with someone who plays at a reasonable pace. The game would suck with a min-maxer...
Steve


Finished up a game of MAge Knight and then played a Few Acres of Snow with buddy Doug.

Both lots of fun, though I probably liked Mage Knight better.

Peace

Roger
 

Drow

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In an D & D game,Forgotten Realms sitting just ran Nickys group in and out of trouble in Sembia. Gave them a wee bit of scare by dropping them in an out of Myth Drannor.

Bill
 

jwb3

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For a 5 year old or older try some euro type games like Rat-a-tat Cat, The Secret Door, Enchanted Forest and Gulo Gulo. They are quite good.
Yeah, Gulo Gulo was entertaining enough for the adults as.


I'm glad to hear that other people found the D&D boardgames as uninspiring as I do. Bob really captures the feel of the game. I get the impression that each scenario is supposed to tweak things to make it a bit different (boss monster or stuff), but the process stays the same.


John
 

MrP

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Frog Juice with my 8yo and Scotland Yard with my 12yo....SY reminds me of playing Dracula at Heroes a few years ago with Dave Schofield as dracula....
 

daveramsey

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Bill nailed it earlier on with Dominant Species. This is definitely a "Gamers game" - I've played it 3 or 4 times now - and enjoy it. It's not quite as brutal as it sounded (at least my playings weren't) - there's not very much direct conflict (one phase and the spiders are kind of auto-killers) but it's very "thinky".

The problem is the phases don't really stick, our group constantly forgot what "specialisation" did, as opposed to "adaption", and the calculation for dominance, which gives a different reward to the 'most on the tile' confused players who were never quite sure whether they should be aiming for most species or most well suited.

Anyway - it's a good game, and I'd recommend it for gaming types. It's a bit of a challenge for the first couple of games.

Back on topic, being Christmas and all, with the kids, I managed a game of monopoly (it's a good game if you play with proper rules [auctions, no money going on to free parking, etc]), Cluedo (Clue), Aquaretto, and a bunch of other bits and pieces.

The game that went down the best was one of them picking a something to draw and everyone just having to draw it. Then they got to vote on whose was best. Good old fashioned fun!
 

M Faulkner

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For a 5 year old or older try some euro type games like Rat-a-tat Cat, The Secret Door, Enchanted Forest and Gulo Gulo. They are quite good. Trust me, it will save you from having to play some of those old American games over and over. I have them in storage if you can’t find them.
Thanks for the info (wouldn't let me rep ya). I will start looking online for them. Do you know what company produced them?
 

Victor

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Also recommend for the little ones Labyrinth Jr., There's a Moose in the House, Whoowasit?, and Magician's Kitchen.
 

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Just finished a very "loose" solo game of Waterloo from GMT's just-released Fading Glory Napoleon 20 quad pack to get familiar with the rules. The production value is incredibly high. It made me laugh a bit as I recall playing my older brother my first ever wargame back in the early '70s. It was the free introductory Waterloo game he got from from SPI upon getting a subscription to SPI's Strategy & Tactics magazine (remember that?). The Waterloo map was this mono-color gosh-awful light brown. I am impressed with what the designer has done with the tweaking this game system to make it much more interesting than the old odds-based CRT snooze-athon. I'd encourage folks to look at picking up a copy. A full game should take about an hour to hour or so.

Another interesting fact, what got me even aware of and committed to pre-ordering this game? A tutorial video on YouTube. Great way to advertise...for free. Link below.

http://www.gmtgames.com/p-345-fading-glory-napoleonic-series-20-multi-pack-1.aspx
 

Drow

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Had a fast but fun game, played The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, with my sister-in-laws two boys. It's not too bad a game really.

Bill
 

Robin Reeve

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Had a fast but fun game, played The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, with my sister-in-laws two boys. It's not too bad a game really.

Bill
I played LotR CCG these last days : interesting cooperative (or solo) challenge.
I won the easiest quest once in four plays - mixing two types of heroes and cards is the way to go.
 
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